There has been a problem to provide drug distribution and control systems for use in nursing homes, hospitals, and the like, wherein the nurse or attendant circulates through the installation dispensing pills or other medicines to the patients. The most commonly used form of medicine dispensing at the present time in such institutions is the use of a small paper cup with the patient's name written on it and the medicine put into it, usually in pill, tablet or capsule form. Such cups are neither convenient nor particularly safe. For example, they are subject to upset, mix-up or spilling, and they require several trips to the hospital dispensary because only a limited number of cups can be handled with convenience at one time.
A number of partial solutions have been suggested for solving this problem. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,182,791 to Jenner, there is suggested a strip-like, compartmentalized package for use together with date insignia and the dispensation of medicines. Similar packaging devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,283,885 to Grunewald and Lindner, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,358 to Meyers. In general, therefore, it has heretofore been proposed to use blister-type medicine packaging in combination with prescription-type data and to use such items to meet the special problems associated with dispensing of medicines in nursing homes and hospitals.
However, while these prior art packaging devices are useful as individual packages, they are not adapted for maintaining an ordered and visible index of the prescription information for a large number of patients.